Who Can Help Us?
by DragonReader99
Summary: Previously titled Shadow Rider. A Hiccup Runs Away fic. Rather than trying to train a dragon in front of Berk, Hiccup sets the dragons free and runs away. Only Astrid knows the truth. Berk is left at war with the dragons while Hiccup spends his time freeing them. Five years later, Berk desperately needs his help. Most of this story will be about his return to Berk.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own How To Train Your Dragon. This is purely fanfiction, and I am gaining no profit from this.

I would like to apologize to another author. This story was originally named Shadow Rider, but I have been informed that the name has already been used. I sincerely apologize, and the name has now been changed.

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This story follows the movie up through Hiccup winning the right to kill his first dragon then taking Astrid on a flight and seeing the dragon's nest. It begins once they have returned to the cove following that flight.

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"What are you going to do, Hiccup?" Astrid asked. "You can't kill that dragon tomorrow." She leaned back against Toothless as the dragon listened curiously to their conversation.

Hiccup groaned as he paced back and forth. "I have no idea. It's not like anyone's going to listen to me," he told her.

Astrid shrugged. "Make them listen."

She saw him get a faraway look in his eyes. It was an expression she had come to associate with him formulate an idea, often a crazy idea. "I would have the entire village's attention tomorrow. I could train the Nightmare in front of everyone."

"That might actually work." Astrid firmly believed that actions spoke louder than words, so she liked his plan. It didn't stop a small feeling of worry to creep up her spine, though. "So much could go wrong."

Hiccup paused in his pacing, and Astrid watched as he thought it over. "You're right. I'd have enough trouble training a dragon in ordinary circumstances, and this one's going to be surrounded by enraged Vikings. The second one of them- probably my dad- makes a threatening move, it's all over, and their hatred of dragons will be worse than ever." He threw his hands up. "And now we're back to square one."

"So, what are you going to do?" Astrid repeated her earlier question.

He shot her a look. "Why do you all of a sudden care what I'm going to do? Come up with your own plan if you care so much."

Astrid rolled her eyes. "Hiccup, contrary to popular belief, you really are quite intelligent. I may be able to fight, but you know how to plan if you bother to take your time rather than running off recklessly."

Hiccup opened his mouth to reply then paused. "Was that a compliment or an insult?"

She felt Toothless huff in what seemed suspiciously like a laugh from her position leaning against the dragon. "Hiccup, focus," she commanded. "What do we do?"

He began pacing again as she looked on, trying to come up with her own ideas as well. Suddenly, though, he paused. "We can buy ourselves time, at least."

"How. They're going to make one of us kill the dragon tomorrow."

"What if there was no dragon for us to kill?"

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Astrid stayed close to Hiccup and Toothless as the trio crept into the dragon arena about an hour later. It was full night by that time, and no one would be in the area. Still, they kept to the darkest shadows. Toothless was on full alert, looking all about them, determined to protect his rider and his new friend.

There was no need for the caution, though. Anyone who might have been outside was more focused on dangers from the sky than a few figures moving across the ground. The slipped into the area without issue, and Toothless helped Hiccup open the first of the pens. Spines shot out of the pen as soon as the gate was out of the way, and Astrid barely dodged in time.

Toothless growled at the Nadder who strode forth into the arena. The dragon paused in surprise, looking in confusion between the Night Fury and the two humans it was protecting.

"It's okay," Hiccup told it. "We're just trying to set you free. He slowly walked forward, and Astrid readied herself to act. There was nothing to worry about, however. The dragon moved back and forth a few times in its birdlike way before allowing Hiccup to finally touch it.

Astrid took a moment to really look at the creature standing before her. The first time she had encountered this Nadder in the arena had been during training while she was looking at it as nothing more than an opponent to be defeated. Now, though, she really took in just how beautiful it was.

"Astrid?" Hiccup asked. She realized the he had moved away from the Nadder and was trying to get her attention.

"Sorry, I've always admired Nadder's for the fighting skill, but I've never really taken the time to really see how gorgeous they are. I'm glad-" She was cut off as the dragon bounded forward, straight toward her. Astrid didn't even have time to react before it happily nudged its nose against her then hopped back slightly.

Astrid looked at the dragon in shock as Hiccup laughed. "Apparently Nadders are quite vain," he told her. "Who knew?"

The Nadder hissed at him and shot a spike at his feet. Toothless seemed amused. Astrid laughed as Hiccup yelped. "Good dragon," she cooed to her new friend, reaching out a hand to pat the blue dragon. "Don't let Hiccup be mean to you."

The other dragons were released with much less drama. Even the Monstrous Nightmare was fairly complacent once it saw that the other dragons liked the two strange humans in the arena. Hiccup and Toothless led the free dragons out of the ring, and on a flight path that would hopefully let them escape Berk without being detected. He would sneak back into the village later. It would be easy for him to come back alone, so Astrid had agreed to stay behind.

Astrid watched the shadows fly off into the night once she had closed the Arena up behind them. Hiccup and Toothless couldn't even be seen in the sky, and the others were nothing more than vague shadows to her eyes.

They had made the right decision. The residents of Berk never would have allowed the dragons to live, and they definitely would have gotten themselves killed had they heard about the nest. Nothing was going to stop Stoick from hunting down every last dragon, no matter how dangerous. Astrid went to bed that night wondering what the next day would bring.

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"Where is it?" Stoick's angry voice boomed throughout the arena the next morning. Astrid was watching from the gate with Gobber as Hiccup stood in the center of the ring. The gate to the Nightmare's pen had been opened, but nothing came out.

In true Hiccup fashion, the thin boy headed over to the pen without heed of anyone's warning. "It's not here!" he exclaimed in what Astrid knew to be fake surprise.

"Gobber?" Stoick called down.

"It was here yesterday. Honest, Chief," Gobber answered, scratching his head.

"It's true," Astrid added. "We had training yesterday, and it was making a racket in its pen. It was definitely there."

They had opened up the gate at that point, and Stoick had entered the ring along with Astrid and Gobber. "This was to be your day of glory, Son," Stoick mourned.

"Gee, Dad, that's just too bad," Hiccup tried. "We'll just have to declare my training complete and all move on with our lives." Astrid almost laughed at how bad that attempt was.

"How could you say such a thing, Hiccup?" Stoick asked incredulously. "I will not rest until we get you a dragon to kill. Let's have the Nadder, then."

Gobber went over to open the door. "Come on, Dad," Hiccup tried again. "It really isn't that important. I've proven I can stand against a dragon. Let's just give up."

"Hiccup, this is your right!" Stoick argued. "I won't have you shaming this family by not being able to do this." Astrid winced. That wasn't going to end well.

"This one's gone too!" Gobber exclaimed.

"What?" Stoick asked, distracted.

Hiccup used the ensuing chaos as it was revealed that all the dragons were gone to escape the arena. Astrid followed him out, unnoticed by anyone. "Hiccup," she called after him.

He slowed slightly to let her catch up. "I'm really glad we got the dragons out of here when we did," he stated. "There is no possible way that could have gone well."

"What now?" Astrid asked a moment later. She noticed that they were heading back to Hiccup's house.

"I can't stay, obviously," Hiccup muttered.

Astrid jerked him to a stop. "But-"

He shook his head. "Think about it, Astrid. If any of them find Toothless, it won't end well. That's been made more than clear to me today. I can't keep him around here for much longer."

"Don't leave, Hiccup," she asked. The thought of never seeing him again was, shockingly, quite painful. She, of course, couldn't consider going with him. Her family was on Berk. Hiccup didn't have a life to abandon, but she did.

"Honestly, Astrid, other than Gobber, and recently you, no one is going to care whether I'm here or not. My father's going to miss the son he thought he had, not me, and the others are only going to miss picking on me. Let me go. Maybe I can do some good elsewhere. I can still visit you once in a while."

Astrid pulled him into a tight hug. "Be safe. Free as many dragons as you can. Find your place." She pulled back to look at him. "Believe me, Hiccup, if you don't contact me at least once a month, I will hunt you down."

His eyes widened. "I very much believe that."

"Go. Before everyone comes back." On an impulse, she darted forward and kissed his cheek.

"What was that for?" He sounded shocked.

Astrid shrugged. "You'll have to come back and ask me again."


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own How to Train Your Dragon.

This is basically a transition chapter. Most of this movie is going to take place 5 years post chapter 1, so this chapter spans the five years between chapters 1 and 3. It starts just after chapter one ended. So, Hiccup has just run away from Berk with Toothless after freeing the dragon that he was supposed to kill.

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Astrid was contacted a month later, but it was not in the way she expected. She was practicing with her ax out in the forest when a blue Terrible Terror nearly flew into her. It chattered excitedly as it waved a rolled letter in her face. "What in the world?" she asked as she took the letter from it.

She made out Hiccup's familiar scrawl once she unrolled it.

 _Astrid,_

 _See, this is me contacting you once a month. Now you can't come and hunt me down! I promise to actually come in person in a few weeks, but Toothless and I are far too busy at the moment to fly all the way back to Berk. So many of the tribes around here have imprisoned dragons. We're working on freeing as many as we can. Dragons are still raiding everywhere too. We're going to have to do something about that Queen eventually._

 _Toothless and I are both perfectly fine, and we hope that you are too. If you ever have an urgent message for me, ask the Terror to wait. Otherwise, it's going to get away from Berk as quickly as possible._

 _Be safe,_

 _Hiccup (and Toothless)_

"You can go, bud," she told the small dragon. It chirped and flew off, and Astrid returned to her normal life on Berk.

True to his word, Hiccup actually did show up a few weeks later, surprisingly with both Toothless and the Deadly Nadder that had been previously freed from Berk. It seemed that the blue dragon had taken a liking to her, so she named her Stormfly. Hiccup stayed the night in the cove, telling Astrid all about his adventures, but he left again the next day.

The next year passed in much the same way. Life in Berk went on. Stoick and Gobber were heartbroken once they found out that Hiccup had run away, but they had no idea where to even begin looking. Boats were sent out to a few nearby tribes, but no one had seen Hiccup. Astrid wisely kept her mouth shut, and Hiccup continued to visit or send letters once a month.

The dragon raids continued as usual, though Astrid did everything she could to stop them. Thanks to Hiccup's knowledge, she was able to throw eels in strategic places around the village and food stores. Along with a few other preventative measures, the raids had been slightly less devastating.

One day, though, they just stopped. It was the middle of summer which meant that raids should have been occurring anywhere from once a week to every other day. After two weeks of peace passed, people began to grow concerned. Astrid didn't even have any answers as it had been a full month since she last saw Hiccup. No one could figure out where the dragons had gone, and everyone was set on edge, just waiting for an attack.

Several days later, a fishing boat came back with its sails shredded and several of its crew injured. According to the captain, a couple of dragons had attacked them in the middle of the night, and damage had occurred before the dragons could be driven off. Astrid began to seriously wonder what was going on. Berk had only fought two dragons in the span of three weeks. That was unheard of even for the middle of winter, and it was summer now.

She finally came to the conclusion that Hiccup must have had something to do with it. He was the only other person that knew the Queen was behind the constant raids. It was then that she really began to worry. He still hadn't contacted her, and it was well past the month deadline she had set. She made sure to head out into the forest at least once a day to check if any dragons had messages, and she even checked the cove once in a while. There was absolutely no sign of her friend. Not even Stormfly showed up. She couldn't do anything to figure out where he was.

Even the other teens noticed her growing agitation, though they were convinced that it was because she missed being able to fight dragons every other day. She chucked her ax at Snotlout for that comment.

Another month passed, as did the anniversary of Hiccup running away. She went down to the cove that night, hoping just for some kind of sign from him. Once she climbed down from the narrow entrance and walked out by the pond, a dark shape darted across the sky just above her. She wouldn't even have believed it was real if not for the wind that ruffled her hair. "Hiccup?" she called out. It had to have been him. No other dragon was quite as silent as the Night Fury.

"Hi Astrid," a voice answered from not too far away.

Before she could figure out where he had landed, something else knocked her over. She grinned when she realized it was Stormfly. "I missed you too, girl," she told her dragon, wrapping her arms around Stormfly's neck. "Where have you been?"

"I'm sorry if we worried you," Hiccup said from behind her. She heard his footsteps approaching, though something sounded slightly off about them.

She turned to face him. He was easy to see in the moonlit cove now that Toothless's shadowy form wasn't hiding him. "It's been more than two mo-" she angrily began before cutting herself off when she got a good luck at him.

"So, the Queen's dead," he said in a genuinely cheerful voice. "The dragons don't have to raid anymore."

Astrid was too surprised to really register what he was saying. "Your leg," she finally said.

Hiccup nodded. "Dragon Queen battle. I've been recovering with another tribe for a while. I haven't had a chance to write." **(A/N: The movie gave him a pretty short recovery time too, but we can pretend he was gone for longer if you want. There's like another four years to get through before the actual story starts next chapter.)**

Astrid jumped forward and wrapped her arms around him. "I'm just glad that you're okay."

He returned the hug, and they remained that way for a long time before Astrid finally demanded a full explanation of what had happened. Hiccup had apparently been trying to spy on the Queen to figure out what kind of dragon she was. He and Toothless had successfully done this a few times, so they weren't too concerned. This time, though, the Queen spotted them. They fought her and won, but not before Hiccup was wounded. Toothless left him at the closest village, and Hiccup spent most of the following time unconscious.

Astrid finally understood why the raids had stopped, though they still had problems. There was so much hatred between the dragons and Vikings that they would still attack each other on sight.

Hiccup once again left to keep freeing dragons, and Astrid continued with her life on Berk. She was much more content now that they weren't actively fighting with dragons all the time. As the next year passed, Berk become a somewhat more pleasant place to live. Only very rarely (like once a month) did a dragon attack, and even then the damage was never too bad. Everyone was relieved to be able to store enough food to get through winter and then some, and Gobber found himself with much more leisure time now that weapons weren't being damaged left and right.

Hiccup continued to visit or write at least once a month, and Astrid began to learn how to fly and fight with her dragon. To her surprise, Hiccup was actually becoming a warrior as well. He often stayed in different villages for weeks at a time under an assumed name, trading his blacksmithing skills for supplies and fighting lessons. He was still thin, but he learned how to use that in a fight, and all of his metalworking had given him enough muscle to use. Astrid would always be the better fighter, but he could actually hold his own by the third year after running away from Berk.

By the fourth year, he had built himself a fire sword, and Astrid actually jumped back the first time he ignited it. Between that and his armor, Hiccup looked terrifying. Toothless ruined it by knocking Hiccup over, looking for a belly rub.

It was also at that time that Astrid and Hiccup realized they were falling for one another, thought they knew that nothing would be able to come of it at the moment. They rarely saw one another. Hiccup wasn't willing to return to Berk, and Astrid couldn't leave her family.

Five years after Hiccup had first run away from Berk, things began to get interesting.

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Reviews and comments are always appreciated, even bad ones as long as you're polite. I always want constructive criticism.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own How to Train Your Dragon or anything associated with it.

So, the story really begins now! This takes place 5 years after the first movie, so basically when the second movie happened. Hiccup has still been gone, as stated in the last chapter. He visits Berk every so often to see Astrid, but he doesn't go into the village. He basically flies around to different villages and makes sure the Vikings and dragons aren't killing each other. Astrid's life as a shieldmaiden has gone on in Berk. Stoick trusts her a lot. She very smart and skilled, and she's an adult now, so he respects her.

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"Again?" Astrid asked incredulously.

The chief nodded as he surveyed the latest damage. Most of the village had congregated near the partially destroyed remains of one of their main food holds. A pair of dragons had just swooped into the village in broad daylight, caused the damage, and left. "This is the third time in less than a month," Stoick agreed as he tiredly rubbed his face. "Why is this happening?"

Astrid shrugged, but she began to wonder. Ever since Hiccup had defeated the queen, dragon raids had been few and far between. They had still happened from time to time, but they were very random and easy to handle. Berk had continued to trap dragons and attempt to use them for training, but she and Hiccup always made sure they were set free before too long. Nothing too out of the ordinary had happened for the past few years.

"We should work on gathering more food," Astrid suggested. Summer had just ended, and winter was a ways off, but on Berk, they had to start storing for the winter early. The raids hadn't harmed them beyond repair, but they also couldn't last with what stores they had.

Stoick shook his head. "We'll be fine for a while. I want to hunt those beasts down."

"We've already tried that. Twice," Astrid replied patiently. "We need to focus on food right now."

"Third time's the charm right?" He turned to look at her seriously when she grumbled. "Look, Astrid, I cannot let those beasts roam free only to attack us again. I promise that if we don't get them this time, then we'll focus on food."

"I'm going to hold you to that, Chief," she stated. Stoick was a wonderful leader, and she would never wish for anyone to take his place, but he sometimes lost sight of the most important things.

"We leave at first light," Stoick declared. The villagers cheered. There was much more enthusiasm for dragon hunting now that it had become measurably less dangerous.

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Astrid grinned as she caught sight of a dark shape on the horizon the next morning while she and the other villagers saw off the dragon hunting party. She dashed to the cove as quickly as possible where she was promptly attacked by a blue mass.

"Stormfly, enough," Astrid shouted as she finally managed to free herself. A pair of arms quickly puller her to her feet and wrapped themselves around her. "I missed you," she said as she returned Hiccup's hug.

"I missed you too," Hiccup replied in his own odd voice.

Toothless nudged them. "It's good to see you too, Toothless."

Hiccup pulled away from her to look around. "What was going on down at the docks earlier?" he asked in concern.

Astrid rolled her eyes and filled him in on the raids of their food supplies. "The Chief just set out to find the dragons that raided. He hasn't been able to find them before, though."

Hiccup shook his head. He and Astrid had settled themselves against their dragons around a small campfire. "I don't think these are random raids, Astrid. The same thing happened last year with another village. They were raided about six times, only part of their food supplies destroyed. Then, the raids just stopped. No one could figure out why. I even pretended to be a traveler and asked the villagers, but there was no reason for it." Astrid grinned at how utterly perplexed he looked. It was quite an adorable expression. He may have grown, but he was still the same person he had always been.

"What can we do?"

Hiccup shrugged. "I'm going to stick around at least until the boats get back. I want to see if they find anything this time. Even if these raids haven't been bad, they need to stop."

Astrid nodded. However, they couldn't do anything about it at the moment. She jumped up and stomped out their fire. "Race you," she called to a shocked Hiccup as she jumped onto Stormfly's back. She heard him calling out as she flew off, and she knew that she had to use everything that the head start gave her. Toothless was, regrettably, the faster dragon. All too soon, a dark shadow swept overhead and Toothless came up beside her a few moments later.

"Where are we racing to?" Hiccup asked.

Astrid just grinned. "You can't win if you don't know where the finish line is."

"That's not fair!"

"Life isn't fair." She led Hiccup and Toothless on a chase through the many sea stacks around Berk before they finally settled on top of one.

Hiccup was somehow the first off of his dragon. "I win!" he cheered.

"How?" Astrid complained. "I didn't even tell you this was the finish line!"

"I'm just that awesome." Hiccup smirked.

Astrid was about to respond when she noticed a ship on the horizon. It was late in the afternoon. They had spent several hours flying around. "Look," she said to Hiccup.

He spun around to see what she was focused on. "How many ships went out this morning?"

Astrid took a moment to think. "Two. The chief took about twenty people with him."

Hiccup let out a breath. "Okay. It looks like everyone's okay. That ship is sitting very low in the water, so they're probably all aboard the one ship."

She rolled her eyes. "I told him not to go after those dragons. Did he listen? No. At least he might give up now."

Hiccup snorted. "You do realize that losing a ship is just going to make him even more determined to hunt down those dragons."

Astrid dropped her head into her hands. "Great. We need to not let him do that."

"We need to get you back so that you can try to convince him to leave the dragons alone."

"Yes we do," Astrid agreed. She and Hiccup jumped onto their dragons and sped back to Berk.

"I'm going to look around the island," Hiccup told her before she dashed out of the cove. "I need to know why those dragons are attacking." He flew off again, and she sprinted for the village, just making it to the docks in time for the chief to come ashore.

"How did it go, Chief?" she asked, trying desperately not to look and sound as if she'd just been sprinting through the forest.

He just grumbled angrily. "We didn't even get that far before a pair of dragons came out of nowhere and tore one of our ships to shreds. By the time we managed to get the other crew onto our ship, the beasts had flown off again. It was like they were playing with us."

Astrid was starting to get very suspicious about what was going on, but now was not the time to tell the chief. "They were probably scared off by all of the Vikings around. After all, there were only two of them."

"You're right, Astrid. I'm sure they knew we could defeat them," the chief boomed. He patted her on the shoulder before moving off with the rest of the villagers.

Astrid was about to run after him to try to continue to convince him not to go dragon hunting again, but she was distracted. It seemed as if all kinds of things had been appearing on the horizon lately. Apparently her plans would have to wait. "Dragon!" she shouted.

The chief and other villagers quickly returned from the village to meet her on the docks. There were shouts from the assembled crowd as a squad of three dragons drew closer. To their surprise, the dragons were three Monstrous Nightmares. They almost never willingly worked in groups.

Things only got stranger from there. Despite the very obviously angry Vikings by the docks, the dragons flew further into the island, probably straight to the food supplies they had been destroying lately. The entire crowd ran after them, and Astrid groaned before chasing after them. With any luck, she would be able to do something to limit the fighting.

The Vikings actually had gained the upper hand this time. The dragons were refusing to fly off despite the fact that they were quite clearly losing. Astrid was at a loss for what to do until a dark shadow swooped overhead.

She was momentarily relieved that Hiccup had arrived, then very, very concerned that he had decided to show himself in Berk again, then even more extremely concerned when she realized the dragon overhead was most definitely not Toothless.

The four-winged beast screeched overhead and dived at a group of the Vikings attacking one of the Nightmares. Everyone got out of the way in time, but it was close. Astrid ran at the new dragon. She may not have been big on fighting dragons anymore, but this one specifically attacked her people. She felt justified in fighting it. So, she dashed forward, axe in hand, only to freeze in place. The dragon had a rider.

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Yes, it's a cliffhanger. I was either going to end it here or on another cliffhanger that's coming soon, so look forward to that. However, it probably won't be another cliffhanger because I refuse to write a 200 word chapter. Actually this one might not be a cliffhanger as I'm pretty sure you guys know who showed up on the four-winged dragon.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own How to Train Your Dragon or anything associated with it.

So, the mystery rider is attacking Berk. I'm pretty sure you all know who it is. Hiccup is still somewhere around Berk, but he is not in the village with Astrid currently because obviously he ran away and can't show his face. Enjoy the chapter!

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Astrid barely had time to react before the four-winged dragon and its rider began terrorizing the villagers. No one had gotten hurt yet, but it seemed as if the rider was determined to protect the Nightmares at any cost. A familiar whistling shriek accompanied the arrival of Hiccup and Toothless.

The Nightmares took off into the sky, and the mysterious rider turned to meet Toothless in the air. Despite the mask and armor, the rider was clearly shocked at Hiccup's appearance. Whoever it was probably thought that they were the only rider out there. Hiccup's masked form was displaying just as much shock.

The two riders hovered across from each other in the air, just staring. The dragons seemed to be more curious than anything. Then, Stoick chucked an axe at them. Toothless had to twist out of the way in order to avoid it, flinging Hiccup to the ground. The Night Fury crashed moments later without his rider to control his tailfin.

Some of the Vikings rushed to grab the fallen rider while the rest rushed to Toothless. Astrid was one of the closest to the Night Fury, and she managed to look hesitant enough to get the others to think twice about attacking right away. Toothless growled at the armed Vikings facing him.

"Run, Toothless!" Hiccup yelled across the crowd. "I'll be fine. Just go."

Astrid watched as Toothless hesitated, then reluctantly turned to go, only to realize he wasn't going to get very far on the ground. The Night Fury desperately looked around as the Vikings crept closer. Hiccup wasn't going to be any help. He could handle himself now, but two very burly Vikings had hold of him. The mysterious rider up in the air might have been about to intervene, but that was just likely to end in disaster.

"Let's take it down, Astird!" Stoick boomed beside her. She looked at his determined face and came to a decision.

"I'm sorry, Chief," she told him. Astrid dashed forward and leaped onto Toothless's back. Outraged cries followed their flight away.

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Stormfly joined them once they reached the water. The Nadder squaked in concern that Hiccup wasn't there. "We'll get him back," Astrid promised her winged companions. "Right after we deal with that." She had just glanced back to see the mystery rider following them. "Let's find out what we're dealing with." She was glad that she still had her axe as she led the rider on a chase through the sea stacks.

They flew around for a few minutes, the rider never coming close enough to be a threat, before Astrid finally directed Toothless and Stormfly to land on top of one of the stacks. Berk could still be seen, but they would be out of sight of any of its inhabitants. Her dragons flanked her as the four-winged dragon touched down and its rider gracefully dismounted.

"Why are you attacking my village?" Astrid demanded as the figure crept closer. It was weird, the way the rider moved. The figure seemed to be more curious than anything, but Astrid held up her axe in warning. "No closer."

The rider straightened. "Why do you defend a village the hunts dragons when you would defend these creatures?" It was a woman's voice.

"My family is there, my life. Things are actually getting better." Astrid studied the rider's blue armor for a moment as she gathered her thoughts. Now that she knew the rider existed, it made sense why the dragons had been specifically targeting food supplies. "Why do you want to starve us?"

The rider shook her head. "I don't want to starve you. The dragons haven't taken any more than you can replace before winter."

"Yes, but it's going to take a lot of time…." Astrid trailed off. "Which is why you're doing it. You want us to stop spending our time hunting down dragons."

The rider finally removed her mask to reveal an oddly familiar face with a long brown braid. "I didn't see another option. I was hoping to distract you for a while, but I didn't foresee that Berk would be so stubborn." The woman's expression of frustration was oddly hilarious.

"You clearly don't know very much about Berk." Astrid relaxed her grip on her weapon, though she didn't get rid of it entirely.

The woman looked sad. "No, I truly don't."

"Well, I need to save my friend. So, if you would take your dragon and go?"

"Who is your friend?" she asked. "Perhaps we could work together."

"My friend is dedicated to peace between the dragons and Vikings, but he would never attack Berk to do so."

The rider rolled her eyes in such a familiar fashion that Astrid froze. "I will do whatever is necessary to achieve my goals, even if that means harassing Berk. However, I do not wish to see a fellow rider punished for my actions. I will help you save your friend."

Astrid clapped a hand to her mouth and took a step back. So many thoughts were whirling through her head.

"What have I done?" the rider asked in concern.

Astrid just shook her head. "Your son turned out so much like you."

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Hiccup watched Astrid fly off on Toothless with relief. That was going to cause all kinds of problems momentarily, but at least everyone was safe. The mystery rider took off after them, and that feeling of safety was gone. At least Astrid could hold her own, and Toothless was a dangerous adversary if it came to that.

He was pulled back to his immediate surroundings sometime later as his father walked over and snatched his helmet away. The chief had been dealing with damage repair to the village. Hiccup braced himself for the inevitable exclamations of shock.

They never came. "Who are you and why are you harassing my village?" the Chief demanded.

Hiccup froze in shock. Had five years really made such a difference in his appearance? "I'm not harassing your village. The other rider was."

"Wow. Blaming it on your friend. I wouldn't expect loyalty from this," the chief growled as he gestured to Hiccup.

"You just gestured to all of me." Hiccup couldn't help the familiar complaint as it slipped out.

Stoick stepped back in shock. "Lock him up," he commanded the other villagers. "Maybe he'll be willing to give up his friend after a night in prison."

"What about Astrid?" one of the assembled crowd called out.

"We're setting out after her right now," Stoick declared.

Hiccup laughed. "That really isn't going to work," he pointed out. He was shocked when his father actually paid attention to the comment. "She's on a Night Fury, a very fast, black dragon, and it's starting to get dark. She can both hide from and outrun you. You don't stand a chance."

"We can't do nothing. We need to save her from that beast!"

"Did you not see her willingly ride it away?" Hiccup asked in bewilderment. "She isn't in danger." Except maybe from the other rider.

"I refuse to believe that there is no other explanation. Astrid is one of the most accomplished warriors on Berk and would never befriend a monster."

"Okay. One: Dragons are not monsters. Two: When have you ever seen Astrid actually harm one?" Hiccup asked.

That actually made Stoick pause.

They were interrupted by a roar on the other side of the village, saving the chief from having to come up with an answer. Most of the villagers dashed in the direction of the bright flames that were being shot into the sky. Hiccup realized that he was now mostly unguarded just as a dark shape materialized overhead, snatching him up as it swept by.

His father's exclamations of rage were drowned out by the wind as Toothless and Astrid carried him off. To his surprise, the mysterious rider soon joined them in the sky. Apparently the four-winged dragon had been causing the distraction. He was looking forward to an explanation.

* * *

No, Stoick is not a terrible person. Hiccup really did change quite a bit in the past five years, and the chief is hardly expecting to see his son riding around on a dragon. Stoick basically took a quick look at Hiccup in the frame of mind that he is an enemy. There is nothing to associate with his son yet, so of course Hiccup didn't get recognized. Had Stoick spent more than two minutes with him, he probably would have figured it out.

Yes, I realize that this whole mystery rider thing really isn't a mystery AT ALL anymore, but I'm still rolling with it. I promise I'll actually use her name next chapter.

Also, there actually is going to be a reveal in this story. Berk is going to find out at least the Hiccup is one of the riders.


End file.
